701–710 of 904 posts
When I’m not reading or writing though I think very spatially. Usually no words are in my head and I can kind of place thought in my visual space. Let’s say I need to remember to do something when I’m done working at my computer. I can look at say the door or a chair and “place” the thing I need to remember there.
My inner monologue is basically a consciousness I'm trying to control. It's not a split personality, per se. It's "me", but an OS running my random thoughts all the time. When I dream I sometimes dream in a different language that I (mostly) don't speak (Spanish, or German ... sometimes Japanese which must mostly be from memories there because I haven't studied it). The dreams make me think there's a latent function that keeps popping up for a reset.
I genuinely don't understand how someone could function without being able to "talk to yourself" and essentially narrate your life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depth first search. Basically he's saying you're playing out each conversation to the end, then backing up to the last branch point and chasing it to the end, repeat until you've exhausted every possibility you can think of
Oh. That almost never works IME, though.
This topic (comments here, the OP, and comments in threads elsewhere) exposes some conflicting definitions of what an "internal monologue" is or means. - Some people describe hearing their internal monologue, which I take to mean something like: they have an internal monologue, and it manifests as a voice that only they hear. These people are analogous to those who see things they picture in their mind's eye . - Some…
I would say I don't have an internal monologue. But that doesn't mean my mind isn't wandering all over the place. I don't talk to myself, I don't play out conversations in my head. Instead it's more like a collection of "thoughts", or "images", or visualizing myself "doing". I can get extremely caught up in this. There's also an awful lot of contemplating objects, observing features, visualizing how they interact. Ve…
What Do You Care What Other People Think? , a book of Richard Feynman stories, has a chapter that ties into this. You can read the chapter here: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/607/2/Feynman.pdf He discovers that he can read while counting in his head at a steady rate, but he cannot talk while counting. When he tells his friends, one of them claims to be the opposite, and indeed proves that he can count while ta…
What do people do without a monolog when they are asked to count something silently? Isn’t keeping track of the current number a form of monolog?
- count
- count some physiological process within you (breathing or heartbeat)
- recognize that you can count it without thinking numbers
- recognize that same “emptiness” can continue for a while even after you stop following the physiological process
- rinse and repeat until you can drop into that “emptiness” and stay there at will
I would say I don't have an internal monologue. But that doesn't mean my mind isn't wandering all over the place. I don't talk to myself, I don't play out conversations in my head. Instead it's more like a collection of "thoughts", or "images", or visualizing myself "doing". I can get extremely caught up in this. There's also an awful lot of contemplating objects, observing features, visualizing how they interact. Ve…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you think less you may be open to more possibilities, be more spontaneous and even have some childlike fun. However, others can be taken aback and even suspect ulterior motives, until you harmonize better with others.
Thinking less can be advantageous for situations that welcome spontaneity, thinking more is very useful for all the others.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes I have a "how awful would it be to do XY" moments. Usually something brutal. But it always makes me pay even more attention to not doing that very thing even accidentally because I definitely do not want to break stuff or hurt someone. Yet it makes me a bit nervous. What if I actually decided to do that? Fortunately it never happens when I'm under influence. Do I need help?
As others have said, these sound like typical intrusive thoughts. The most common intrusive thoughts are, I believe, the "call of the void" ones (also known as "high place phenomenon"). You might be driving down the freeway and think "What if I drove into oncoming traffic?" or standing on a cliff at the end of a hike and think "What if I just walked off the ledge?" There's also some common less-morbid ones, like "Wha…